Racing into the Future

There are many noticeable differences between classes at UCSB and at Bocconi. As an Economics and Accounting major, the first few years at UCSB are dedicated towards fulfilling your prerequisites, and the path is for the most part laid out for you. There is not much room for interpretation when planning your schedule, and if you fail to pass a course, it does nothing but set you back at least a quarter.  In coming to Bocconi I was excited to delve into subjects that allow for practical application. Luckily, I chose a wide range of courses at Bocconi that have surprisingly correlated between one another. Especially at this point in the semester, I have begun to make my own personal comparisons between each of the subjects – merging sustainable operations with corporate social responsibility for the personal goal of consulting businesses; brainstorming techniques allowing for short and long term success.

A perfect example of this unintentional mergence occurred recently when I cruised back in time and boarded the magic school bus with my Sustainable Operations Management course for a field trip to the Yamaha factory in Milan. 

Well we may not have soared through space in order to get there, but it sure was cool to get a factory tour...

The tour was conducted by the General Manager and the Head of Communications. They began with a brief tour of the office, and in doing so they informed the class on the company's history. Giving a thorough understanding of the corporation's past in order to fully understand the future fate of the company. After a quick break where we all were allowed to hop on the bikes and snap a few photos, we headed into the conference room for a presentation on Yamaha's innovative reform for increased sustainability and  social responsibility.

The conference room was awesome, a full on motorcycle placed in the center of an ellipse like table, and uniforms that hung all throughout the room. In addition, the company treated us as professionals with a great amount of respect for each of our questions and a well-prepared presentation.


Towards the beginning of the presentation, William Favero, the Communication Manager, briefly mentioned that the company recently engaged in flash mob marketing. BOOM! My head shot up and after we were given a tour of the behind the scenes workshops (where the bikes are assembled, inspected and tested) I went to William and asked him if I could be enlightened of the details behind this flash mob. For those of you who don't know, I am going to be participating in an internship with Deloitte this coming summer in the Audit branch, however after my Management Consulting course at Bocconi I have found myself with an increased interest for Consulting and Advisory services.

For the culminating project in Introduction to Management Consulting, my team is a specialized investment fund in advertising and media companies. We are responsible for advising our clients of whether or not to invest in the flash mob phenomena. William was extremely excited to let me know of their recent endeavor with flash mob marketing and after answering a couple of questions I had drafted up during the conference, he began to show me multiple videos of the event. Taking place in front of la Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain the event was a tremendous success with over 10 million views on YouTube. Consisting of 8 cameras, 100 team members, 6 minutes, and Jorge Lorenzo, the self-sponsored event was of virtually no cost to Yamaha. The firm successfully achieved their goal of creating vibration throughout the environment and evoking a sense of involvement for the company's admirers.

Yours truly chillin by the MotoGP World Champion bike, costing between €3 - €3.5 million, the machine  has a 250 hp and requires  two engineers and one mechanic to turn it on.

By the wizay, the sustainability project about plastic water bottles was a tremendous success! :)